The rearrangement of social and economic conditions around the pursuit of attention is a transformation as profound as the dawn of industrial capitalism and the creation of wage labor as the central form of human toil. Attention now exists as a commodity in the same way labor did in the early years of industrial capitalism. What had previously been regarded as human effort was converted into a commodity with a price.

An overview of the historical precedence for throwing foodstuffs at politicians

I suspect that the answer lies somewhere between Rotenstreich’s authoritarian view on technology and politics—that any change in the direction of technology must be accompanied by a change in the direction of society—and an internalized belief in the dominionist mindset that underscores American culture. Effective altruism is a political gift to the wealthy, packaged absolution that gives them moral permission to extract as much as they want. It is also perilously close to the edge of the cliff of fascism.

Have you ever asked yourself the question, when was the last moment along the rise of the Third Reich when a Jewish person or family could emigrate from Germany with only the usual amount of fuss? You should. It’s a good question to ask. After all, emigration has always been hard, expensive, time consuming, and fraught; but then, with the rise of the Nazis, it got harder and harder, and then became impossible.

‘The Last of Us Part II’ presents what at first seems like an evenhanded point of view, but perpetuates the very cycles of violence it’s supposedly so troubled by.

The biggest problem—and this isn’t limited to web development—is how it has baked exploitation into the core worldview of so many people. We use open-source software. We get paid to use open-source software. Our employers benefit, but the money never trickles down—money never trickles down. This is fine when the project in question is directly funded by a tech multinational. Less so when the project is something specialised, a little bit niche, or inventive, and therefore not financed by a gigantic corporation.

It’s less a style of dress than an enigmatic language of power. It’s not necessarily exclusive in terms of price, but it’s exclusionary in terms of intent.

Blame Johnny Rotten (who by the way, was never really an anarchist – he only needed a rhyme for “antichrist” in that song), but lots of folks still think anarchy is just young people wantonly smashing public property. Like it’s some kind of macho Project Mayhem, from Fight Club, with no plan and no limits.